Florence Regency set to go en bloc

Former Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) estate Florence Regency is up for collective sale at a minimum price of $600 million.

Its sole marketing agent JLL announced yesterday the launch of a tender exercise for the 336-unit estate in Hougang Avenue 2.

Just a day earlier, owners of another privatised housing estate, Normanton Park, announced its collective sale, while over the weekend, Park West condo owners were making a third try to garner enough signatures.

This is the first collective sale attempt by the owners of Florence Regency, built in the late 1980s.

It took less than three weeks for more than 80 per cent of owners to sign the collective sale agreement, said JLL. Under URA's Master Plan 2014, the site is zoned for residential use with a gross plot ratio of 2.8.

With a balance lease term of 71 years, the 389,236 sq ft site could support a total gross floor area of over 1.1 million sq ft or about 1,100 to 1,300 apartment units, said JLL.

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With a minimum bid price set at $600 million and with current estimated differential premiums of about $249 million, the land cost reflects about $779 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr).

JLL said this compares favourably with prices achieved last month with the collective sales of Serangoon Ville and the Serangoon North Avenue 1 government land sale (GLS) site at $861 psf ppr and $965 psf ppr respectively.

"With very strong demand from developers for both the GLS sites and collective sale projects currently, owners of Florence Regency are optimistic that the well located site would attract premium bids and are expecting offers from developers of between $615 million and $650 million onwards," said Mr Tan Hong Boon, JLL regional director of capital markets.